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National Parks

It's been fifty years since Congress created the Pacific Crest Trail, designating a 2,650-mile route that skirted towns and industrial development in favor of some of the West’s most remote places and stunning scenery. Today, that’s still more or less what you get: mile after mile of wild...

When Seth Zaharias learned that the federal government’s partial shutdown would affect services at Joshua Tree National Park, he knew just what he needed to do. “On day one, I drove straight to Walmart and bought a hundred dollars’ worth of toilet paper,” he says. “Then I started making calls...

Leaving our treasured national parks open during the partial government shutdown—without the staffing and resources they need—imperils the health and safety of visitors and the long-term integrity of the parks. That's why I believe our national parks should be closed until the government has reopened.

In the early 1860s, a handful of Mormon pioneers in Utah settled near the mouth of a deep, dark canyon carved by the Virgin River. The Paiute people who’d inhabited the area for generations called the canyon Mukuntuweap, which may have meant “straight canyon,” given its sheer walls. The Mormon...

What do you see when you look at a desert? An empty space? A forbidding wasteland? For some, the sun is too bright, the air too dry, and the cactus too thorny. Others might find the desert a nice place to visit, but no place to live.

Public lands need your help now more than ever. With your help, The Trust for Public Land has saved over 3.6 million acres of public land, and completed more than 5,400 park and community projects across the county.

Martin Luther King Jr. was once just a kid—a bright, studious boy, but not too serious to chase his sisters around the backyard of the family home, a tidy Victorian at 501 Auburn Avenue in Atlanta. Before he became a leader of the civil rights movement, he shared a bedroom with his younger...

“This decision is a mistake. Undermining our national monument protections is an assault on our most treasured historic and natural wonders, and directly contradicts the wishes of the overwhelming majority of Americans who support our public lands. The President’s executive action to reduce the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments is not just a Utah issue—it puts all national monuments at risk. The priceless historic, cultural, and natural wonders of our national monuments are exactly the places and values which should be permanently protected, as Congress envisioned when it passed the Antiquities Act.”

We urge the Senate to continue its work and ensure that the Land and Water Conservation Fund is permanently reauthorized.

Our public lands not only make our communities healthier and happier, but are also a driver of economic growth across the country - and today’s action in the U.S. Senate is a big step forward to providing access to public lands for hunters, fishermen, hikers, bikers, birders and all those who love the outdoors.

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Working from more than 30 offices nationwide, The Trust for Public Land helps communities raise funds, conduct research and planning, acquire and protect land, and design and renovate parks, playgrounds, trails, and gardens.